Natural light first
We reach for the window before the strobe. Flash is a tool, not a habit.
The Studio
A darkroom that never really turned the lights back on.
Laqta began in a converted warehouse with one enlarger, a red bulb, and a rule we still keep: nothing leaves until it earns its place on the contact sheet.
We opened in 2017 shooting portraits for people who hated being photographed. Word travelled the way it does in Riyadh — quietly, and fast — and within two years the warehouse held a cyclorama, a proper set, and a queue of brands who wanted their products treated like faces.
We still work like a darkroom crew: slower than everyone expects, careful about light before anything else, and honest when a shot is not there yet. The digital just means we can show you the contact sheet before the coffee goes cold.
What the studio runs on
You see everything
The full contact sheet is yours. We select together — no frames hidden to make the edit look easy.
Prints, not just files
Every commission can be printed and framed in-house on archival paper. Screens fade; the wall does not.
Time on set
We book fewer shoots so each gets the hours it needs. Rushing a frame is how you lose it.
Behind the frames
FN
Faris Al-Nimr
Founder · Lead Photographer
MS
Maha Sudairi
Portraits & Editorial
TB
Tariq Bassam
Product & Still Life
RO
Reem Otaibi
Studio Producer
Have something to shoot?
Send the brief before the date fills — good light and good dates go early.
Book a shoot